Wednesday, July 6, 2011

No chicken pizza, but....

...the chicken and veg sandwiches were quite tasty. Octopussy was mildly entertaining, but the best part of it was seeing the changes between 1970 Udaipur and 2011 Udaipur. In one word, none. haha It looked exactly the same even down to the auto rickshaws.

Our cooking class was funny. The guy was actually around at 10 am (ish) and we went up to the kitchen and cooked our little hearts out. His English was pretty minimal but he was a funny guy; always dancing and saying who knows what in Hindi. We made Chicken Masala, Aubengine Alloo (eggplant and potato curry), Dhal Fry (lentils), Chapati (wheat tortilla), and rice. It was quite good and a nice way to spend the morning.

We love Udaipur. There's no pressure to do anything, so we kind of lull around and just relax. After the cooking class we went to out airy room and just read for a few hours. Then felt lazy so head out and toured to the City Palace, which was beautiful, followed by our afternoon ice cream. Then came the shadiness. We've been walking to this far away Wine Shop to pick up beers. It's a nice walk and it's near our ice cream guy. BUT NO MORE!! Firstly, we found one like 2 blocks from our hotel, but more importantly I'm pretty sure they stole $40 from us. The 2 times we went there, they'd quote a price, we'd hand over a 500 Rs bill, and they'd stand there saying, "No we said 300 Rs, 300 Rs!" No understanding we look and they're holding a 100 RS note. Us not really paying attention figured we handed over the wrong bill and appologize and give over more money. The second time, when I paid, I knew I had a 500 note in my wallet. I keep searching and searching after this happened and couldnt find it. Finally today we pieced the whole thing together. They were counting on our befuddlement and took advantage. Those bastards! 500Rs is like $10. And they did it twice and charged us on top of it. We've been had.

In a happier story, we haven't been hassled here and are still really enjoying Udaipur. Tomorrow at 10 pm we're taking a 7 hour overnight bus (what are we masochists?) to Bhundi. We have a double sleeper, so hopefully we'll sleep the entire way...and not puke :) Since the bus isn't until 10 pm, we'll check out of out hotel (if we can ever find management. We haven't seen them since we checked in really) and spend the afternoon at a hotel pool.

Bhundi is supposed to be a lovely town and it happens to fall exactly 1/2 between here and Agra (Taj Mahal town). There's a lake with crocodiles and other random stuff. We need to consult LP again for more details.